Recently, the health benefits of fasting have been recognized by the global medical community. Especially the fasting type that you fast for 16 hours a day and do all your eating in an 8-hour window is found to be very beneficial. Therefore, the number of people not eating anything between 6 P.M to 10 A.M next day is increasing day-by-day. In this video, we will see what happens to our body if we don’t eat anything for 72-hours. Please note that we do not recommend this to anyone, we just want to demonstrate the research results. Now, if you are ready, let’s take a look what will happen to your body if you don’t eat for 3 days:
1. APPETITE DECREASES GRADUALLY:
Your desire to eat will be incredibly strong on the first day. There are two reasons behind this urge. First one is the tendency of the body to maintain its usual order and the second one, our psychological food addiction. In addition, our eating habits and what we smell around during the day trigger our appetite. This starts to decrease rather than increase on the second day. In fact, it is observed that people lose their appetite substantially on the third day. This is because of the ghrelin hormone. This appetite regulating hormone is released when the stomach is slightly strained . However, if you remain hungry for a long time, the stomach shrinks and stops releasing this hormone.
2. DEATH RISK IS VERY LOW:
An article in the British Medical Journal says that humans can survive without food for 30 to 40 days provided they are adequately hydrated. According to the article, the survival duration of people depends on their body weight, other medical conditions, genetic factors and most importantly their fluid intake. So, dehydration is much more vital for people than nourishment. People can die within hours due to lack of water, but with regular fluid intake, people can survive for weeks without eating in the worst-case scenario.
3. YOUR BREATH SMELLS TERRIBLE:
When you don’t eat for a long time, your body will start shaking down fat cells for energy. These fat cells are those you have accumulated in your body for a long time and that’s why they are the most persistent ones to lose. Therefore, fasting diets without eating for long periods can be very beneficial for those who want to lose weight. However, this comes at a price; in this case, your breath starts to smell terrible. This is because when the body burns fat reserves, an unpleasant odor is generated and it passes through your breath.
4. YOU LOSE WEIGHT LESS THAN YOU EXPECT:
If you stop eating for three days, you lose weight, but it is mostly caused by fluid loss. Shock diets force body to lose weight, but body loses water not the fat. Fat burning requires much longer times. The body consumes the glycogen storage for its need of energy before starting to burn fat. This means that the body will lose water first. Also, even though you stay hungry for a long time, the amount of weight you will lose will be approximately 700 grams (1.54 lbs) . One of the reasons for this is that your body will switch to emergency plan to protect you.
5. YOU GET SMARTER:
If you starve for a long time, your body will perceive this as an emergency. Our bodies have an emergency plan ready for sudden hunger periods. In accordance with this plan, when you start fasting, all the necessary energy will be directed to the brain rather than other organs. As a result, the brain starts working faster while other organs slow down. Nature allows man to think clearly to get out of starvation.
An interesting example of this happened during the Second World War. In Japan, a group of US soldiers who have been captured were forced to starve for a long period. During this time, they all realized that they could think much more clearly. Such that, one of them started to learn and talk Norwegian in a short period of a week.
What do you think about this subject? Have you ever experienced such things when you are hungry or fasting? You can share with us in the comments section.
References:
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https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=1U4qDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT176&lpg=PT176&dq=during+starvation+testicles+preserved&source=bl&ots=NUbUljo278&sig=wPxkXG3rrqXnBkC2D5FUD8cWIkw&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=during%20starvation%20testicles%20preserved&f=false
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https://opentextbc.ca/anatomyandphysiology/chapter/24-5-metabolic-states-of-the-body/
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https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evwwnp/this-is-what-happens-to-your-body-if-you-dont-eat-for-three-days
